TITLE:  Bill proposes 5-year ban on GMO
SOURCE: Philippines Daily  Inquirer
        sent by MASIPAG, Philippines
DATE:   August 24, 2001

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BILL PROPOSES 5-YEAR BAN ON GMO

LOS BANOS, Laguna-"We are not a nation of guinea pigs." But Surigao del Sur
Rep. Prospero Pichay Jr. said "the entry into the country of genetically
engineered crops and food products . . . may just as well make us one."

"We have yet to determine the risks and hazards of biotechnology to health
and the environment," said Pichay in an explanatory note to a bill he filed
in Congress banning genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the country.
"(A)nd until then it is incumbent upon government to impose measures that
would safeguard our people's interests and welfare," he added.

Pichay has re-filed House Bill No. 1376, that proposes a ban for at least
five years on the entry, sale, processing and field release of products
containing genetically modified organisms or that were produced through
genetic engineering. Violators, the bill proposes, will be fined from
100,000 pesos to a maximum of 500,000 pesos, and imprisoned for one to five
years.

"They say that so far, there's nothing to suggest that biotech food have any
direct threat to health," said Pichay in his explanatory note. "It is one
thing if the experiment goes wrong only in the laboratory," he said.  "But
it is entirely different if it does inside our stomachs or in the
environment (where) we live."

There is still no consensus among scientists and researchers worldwide on
the issue of safety of genetic engineering on health and the environment.
Advocates of modern biotechnology maintain it will boost production or
reduce the use of chemicals. Critics, however, have called for a thorough
study first before the technology could be released into the environment and
market shelves, citing studies that indicate hazards of the technology.

American geneticist Doreen Stabinsky, who did a series of talks in the
country on the issue of GMOs last year, warned that gene-altered food could
cause severe allergy or even death. "The European Union and the United
States are now in a tussle over the safety of GM foods that it is not for us
the developing countries like the Philippines to be the laboratories of
biotechnology," Pichay said. "We are a gentle culture and anything new that
creeps into our humble existence certainly creates a mixture of fear and
anxiety," he said. "(M)ore so if it has a lot to do with the food we eat and
the air we breath."

Agrochemical firms Agroseed of Monsanto and Dupont's Pioneer Hi-Bred Phils.
have been doing field experiments of Bt-corn in the country. The
International Rice Research Institute and the Philippine Rice Research
Institute have a joint proposal to field-test genetically engineered rice.
Meanwhile, GMO food and food products freely land into the market shelves,
unknown to unsuspecting Filipino consumers. Last month, Marikina Rep. Del de
Guzman filed a bill requiring the mandatory labeling of GMO food and food
products.